Method of preparing fur for felting



Patented Jan. lit,

lJNiTED STATES PATET QFFiC E 2,105,894 METHOD OF PREPARING FUR FORFELTING Jack D. Sartakoff, Elmliurst, Long island, N. Y., assignor toNQJVIERQHTY Felt Corporation, a corporation of New York No Drawing.Application December 8, 1936, Serial No. 114,778

4 Claims. (01. (E -21.)

The natural furs of rabbits, hares, nutria, were obtained, however, whena carro-ting solulilllfiklat, beaver, and other similar animals havetion was employed, although a relatively weak well defined hairs,individually terminating in carrot, as compared to prior usage, wasfound to sharp points of a hard and. horny character. give excellentfelts.

In the preparat' .n of such furs for felting, it Thus the singeingoperation as described, has 5 is the common practice to cut off thesesharp been found to produce the dual result: it effipoints by aso-called pulling or clipping opciently and economically disposes of thehard oration which has heretofore been carried out by points of the furand also has a very definite manually presenting the for to the cuttingaction efiect upon the character of remainder of rapidly rotatingknives, in such manner that thereof to render it more feltable. 10

the hard, pointed ends are out off. After the fur In other tests which Imade the fur was first has been clipped as stated, the conventionalclipped by the conventional mechanical clipping procedure is to carrotthe fur by applying thereoperation and the thus clipped fur wassubjected to an appropnate carroting solution which is to singeingoperation. In these tests apprepermitted to haul in contact with the furfor ciably less singeing was required so as not to 15 a sufficientperiod to bring about certain pl.ysi-- unduly burn away the fur body. Itwas found cal and chemical reactions, to the end that the that the furthus singed produced a better felt fur will properly felt. than likefurs that had been clipped in the same Tests which I have made inconnection with way and felted without singeing. This clearly thepreparation of fur for felting, demonstrated demonstrated that thesingeing operation has a 20 that if natural fur was subjected to asingeing definite effect upon the fur to render it more treatmentwithout preliminary clipping, unusual feltablc. and wholly unexpectedresults were obtainable. in practically carrying out the method of thisIn certain of such tests, the singeing referred to "lvention onunclipped fur, the skins may be was carried out upon natural unclippedfur and conveniently caused to travel along a predeter- 25 was effectedby moving an incandescent source mined path on an endless belt or otherappro of heat or a flame in proximity to the fur, or priate conveyor orbe fed along such path vice versa, and in such relation thereto that theby appropriate feeding devices. As thus fed they undesirable tips of theindividual hairs were are caused to pass in proximity to one or moreburned away, to remove the sharp hard points flat. es or a source ofincandescent heat which 30 which have heretofore been cut off byrevolving acts upon the fur to sings away the hard points knives, asstated. I found that these points were of the individual hairs. A groupof gas flames, efficiently removed with practical uniformity fed from asuitable burner, has afforded a conand that the fur thus treated gavevery satisvenient medium for singeing the fur and the factory results infelting. In some cases I was amount of such singeing has beensatisfactorily 5 able to felt such for without the use of anycarcontrolled by moving the flame closer to or furroting solutionwhatever. ther away from the path of travel of the fur and While thetheoretical reasons for these pheby varying the speed at which the furpasses nomena have not been fully formulated, it is sugthrough or inproximity to the flame. The adgested, nevertheless, that inasmuch assingeing justment may be such and. the flame area so 40 involvesburning, i. e., rapid oxidation, and chemconstituted as to result inuniform singeing and ical carroting also involves an oxidation operatosuch extent that the hard points of the fur tion, this may give someindication of the reasons are burned away without undesirable burning offor the results attained. In other words, the the fur. At the conclusionof the singeing opera,-

singeing of the fur brings about, through burntion, the charred ends ofthe hair and other 45 ing, a rapid oxidation of the ends of theindiwaste products of combustion which remain on vidual hairs, and anoxidizing effect is communithe fur may be conveniently removed bybrushcated through attendant thermal treatment, at ing or blowing themoff or in any other suitable least to some extent, to the remainingsound fur, way.

so as to have an oxidizing and partial. carroting After the fur has beensinged as described and 50 effect upon the latter. Be that as it may, Ihave the waste products of combustion removed theredemonstrated that,when the ends of the hairs from, it is thereafter further prepared forfeltare burned away, as stated, I have been able to ing in anyappropriate way and, as hereinbefore felt the resulting fur, in somecases, without stated, in some cases it be merely cut from furthercarroting of the same. The best results the skin and felted. However, ifcircumstances 55 require or it is desired to do so for any reasonwhatsoever, a supplemental carroting solution may be employed beforecutting the fur from the skin and felting it. Any approved carrotingsolution may be used in this connection and I have employed thecarroting solution of my Patent No. 2,070,927, dated Feb. 16, 1937, togive highly satisfactory results. My tests have shown that in most casesa supplemental carroting is required to give the best felts, although Ifind that I may use a considerably weaker chemical carroting solutionthan is required with corresponding furs which have been subjectedmerely to mechanical clipping before carroting.

The method of this invention should not be confused with so-calleddepilating processes heretofore suggested for the preparation of fur foruse on wearing apparel. This prior procedure sought to selectivelyremove a certain type of hair from skins while leaving unchanged thereonanother kind of hair on the same skin. According to such prior practiceattempts were made to remove the so-called water-hairs or master hairsby burning, plucking or the like without burning, cutting or otherwisechanging the remaining finer hairs of the pelt which were to be left onthe pelt to be used as fur pieces by garment makers.

The present invention seeks to do nothing of the kind, but, ashereinbefore described, the hairs of the pelt are clipped, Withoutdiscrimination and in a non-selective manner. The hard, horny endscommon to both the master hairs and the finer hairs are removedindiscriminately by the singeing operation which I have described, to befollowed by felting, or by carroting and felting. In other words, thepurpose of this invention is to produce an entirely different product inan entirely different art. The results sought by this invention areunimportant in the preparation of pelts by singeing as exemplified bythe prior art.

The foregoing detailed description sets forth the invention in itspreferred practical forms but the invention is to be understood as fullycommensurate with the appended claims.

Having hus fully described the invention, what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent is:

l. The herein described method which comprises singeing the fur hairsindiscriminately while on the skin to remove the horny tips thereof,thereafter cutting the fur from the skin, and thereafter felting thefur.

2. The herein described method which comprises singeing the fur hairsindiscriminately While on the skin to remove the horny tips thereof,thereafter chemically carroting the fur, thereafter cutting t fur fromthe skin, and thereafter felting the 3. The herein described methodwhich comprises singeing the fur hairs indiscriminately while on theskin, thereafter cutting the fur from the skin, and thereafter feltingthe fur.

4. The herein described method which comprises singeing the fur hairs iniscriminately While on the skin, thereafter chemically carroting thefur, thereafter cutting the fur from the skin, and thereafter feltingthe fur.

J ACK D. SAR'I'AKOFF.

